I once came into /r/marathon [Reddit] proclaiming my love for the Marathon series and it being the reason I started going to university for Game Design / Development… and that one day I would love to bring Marathon back. Consider this myself keeping true to that statement now that I am out of university and have the skill set to properly go about such a project.

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Backstory:

Some of my earliest gaming memories are of playing Marathon with my father. He would be the one actually playing, but my brother and I were allowed control of the precious alternative fire button… which if you can imagine two young kids in charge of that did not always end well considering we always played the harder difficulty settings. Needless to say like anyone interested in reading what I have to say I have been a fan of the series for many years, and to this day I feel Marathon never quite got the dues we as a gaming community owe it for the innovations the series brought to the table in the 90’s. Marathon to me is the pinnacle of storytelling and FPS gameplay combined, the series was the first game to introduce a grand story into the genre (That I am aware of) and to this day remains my favorite FPS universe for the story it told… in about 1000 terminals and enough text to fill a novel.

Am I looking back with rose tinted glasses? Sure I can admit I am, nostalgia is a powerful thing and is flowing through me strongly while I type this. That does not however take away from the goal(s) of this project, those being the next thing on my agenda to address.

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Goal(s):

• Gain Experience

I have been using UE4 [Unreal Engine 4] since it released and have dabbled with personal projects. This would be yet another means of learning the engine further and gaining some valuable experience while at the same time making my inner child happy. I imagine the same could be said for anyone that helps with the project.

• Portfolio Building

This ties into the above goal, however I believe that anyone interested in a game development job knows that having a good portfolio is key to success.

• Show Interest

If we show Bungie that people still care about their IP and we attract some attention… maybe we’ll increase our chances of seeing a real reboot or sequel to the Marathon franchise.

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At the end of the day I just want to re-create as much of the game as possible. Depending on resources and time this could be anything from just the levels themselves to see what they may look like in a modern engine… to complete gameplay. As I said how much of the game is functional will depend on resources and time, I’d love to have it all working… but the reality of the situation is that I cannot do everything myself and require help if anything is to be completed in a decent timeframe.

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End Result:

Right now the plan is fairly modest. With the help of a 3D Asset and texture artist some levels from the Marathon series will be re-created and released as something for fans to explore. While the goal is to remain faithful to the source material, some creative freedom might be expressed due to how old the games actually are, I’d not plan to make everything so… boxy.

IF we gain the manpower / resources to go further than simple level creation I will create an update topic detailing the changes. In fact, I will likely post weekly updates regardless.

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I feel it is important I mention that while I would love to release all assets created for this project to the public so that anyone can make Marathon levels in UE4, my stance is that the release of assets created is completely up to those who make said assets. The majority of assets could be considered sci-fi inspired thus they could be sold on the UE4 marketplace… so as I said this is something I leave up to the actual artist(s) to decide. It’s only fair to them and the work they do.

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Want to help?

It’s as simple as getting in touch with me. I have also taken the liberty of creating a DISCORD channel for anyone to join.

The more help we get the faster this project becomes something tangible, so please share this post with your friends and other forums where you think Marathon fans can be found.

Best regards,

Kevin

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P.S. Please be patient with us, right now we are only two guys and the first step is to create meshes / textures to use in UE4.

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Since I expect more technically inclined individuals to be part of this forum here are some skills that would come in handy

Audio Engineering

More 3D Artists (Models)

This project is being made in UE4 Blueprinting to make the process easier and quicker for people that may not be comfortable with C++. My main focus will be level design but I plan to be all over a bit of everything.

Right now what we really need are the meshes / textures so that levels can start to be formed. Those include...

You are the firstsecond third person to propose recreating Marathon with UE4. I still feel we don't need multiple Marathon UE4 projects vying for people's time.

I say this not to discourage you! Quite the opposite, in fact. If you want to maximize the chances of finishing something, I urge you to work together with people like those two that seek to develop similar projects. You could even ask Wail of Suicide if you can borrow assets from Marathon: Resurrection as a way of getting a prototype off the ground.

I haven't bothered looking into other Marathon projects, this is simply a side project myself and a 3D artist are using to improve our skills. If it becomes anything more than a few levels put together it'll be because once we have some assets created and we have started we couldn't imagine stopping at just that or we have more people willing to give up their free time like we are.

If people are hoping for the entire game remade in UE4 I don't think they understand how long that would take only 2 people that stand no chance of making money from their effort. I want to stress again this is a side project being done as a means to keep ourselves learning and advancing our skills. I simply enjoy working on side projects at home.

You can do what you want. But the track record for previous Marathon UE4 projects is lacking. Alborada managed a rendition of Arrival you can walk through with some visual effects. Suddenlysara hasn't released anything. I'd much rather play a few levels with some weapons and enemies than see a repeat of these efforts. But if each one- or two-man team does their own thing and starts at square one, that's the most likely result.

I recommend it at as way to learn UE4- playing with the specular maps etc. on the original textures is a lot of fun and a great way to learn the tools.. and walking around in VR is an awesome experience. But it's a lot of work, so much more than you'd imagine, and the small mistakes you make at the beginning start to multiply the further you progress.. until you end up with a total mess which would benefit more from a fresh start than attempts to fix the various problems..

alborada wrote:the small mistakes you make at the beginning start to multiply the further you progress.. until you end up with a total mess which would benefit more from a fresh start than attempts to fix the various problems